BRUCE GARRIOCH, QMI Agency

NEW YORK - Erik Karlsson was given Friday off to rest, relax and get ready for Game 2 of the Senators’ Eastern Conference quarter-final.

He is, after all, a wanted man in the Big Apple.

The Rangers promised to target the league’s top-scoring blueliner coming into the series and they followed through in Game 1 Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

The team that wins a playoff series is the one that makes the best adjustments between games — win or lose. To that end, the Senators must find a way to free up space for Karlsson to do damage.

The NHL’s top-scoring defenceman and Senators’ point man on the power play — who had 78 points and was a plus-16 during the regular season — was held to three shots and finished minus-1 in the series opener as Ottawa went 0-for-3 with the man advantage.

Coach Paul MacLean indicated he didn’t feel Karlsson was at his best in Game 1 and that he has to step it up Saturday night.

“I think there’s things Erik can do to free himself up as well,” said MacLean. “I don’t think Erik skated as well as he has the ability to skate. The best thing he can do to help himself, and help his team, is to make sure when he does go on the ice, he skates.”

Defenceman Chris Phillips said there’s nothing the Senators could really do to make life easier for Karlsson.

“That’s a tough question. I don’t even know how to answer that ... Give him the puck more,” said Phillips. “We haven’t done anything (during the season) to free him up. He makes things happen by himself.

“He put up unbelievable numbers. You’ve got to expect the other team is aware of that. It’s going to get harder before it gets easier. I don’t know if there is something that you could do just because of the attention they’re going to pay.”

However, the Senators are confident that Karlsson is going to play a big role before this series is over.

“Karl plays the most minutes, so maybe he gets the most attention. He is our most skilled defenceman,” said goalie Craig Anderson. “He’s a pretty talented player and guys have targeted him all year long.

“It’s no surprise that he finds a way to get the job done. It may take him a shift or two to get in there and find his rhythm, but he always seems to find a way. When he’s our best player, things are really going well for us.”

The Rangers didn’t just do a good job of limiting Karlsson’s mobility and ability to move the puck, they went after him physically. Karlsson was punched in the head by Brian Boyle in the first. Both received minors for roughing.

That was an odd call by the officials. You can be certain Senators GM Bryan Murray held discussions with Bill McCreary, the NHL’s supervisor for the series, just to get an explanation why the decision was made to penalize both players in a call that clearly hurt the Senators much more.

But the Senators weren’t going to criticizing the officials.

“I’m not going to start reffing now. It’s too late to do that,” said centre Jason Spezza.

Were the Rangers trying to send a message to Karlsson?

“I said at the start that guys have been targeting Erik all year,” said Spezza. “We target their top guys, try to get bumps on them, and they target us. That’s the nature of the beast, especially in a seven-game series.

“They’re going to try to wear us down and we’re going to try to wear them down. It’s not something we didn’t expect.”